UNSEEN photo fair 2016 // 1

UNSEEN celebrated its five year anniversary this year and I’ve wanted to go there all five years, but somehow I never managed to go. Usually I went to the Buchmesse in Frankfurt every fall and that always meant making appointments weeks in advance, preparing etc. Why there are so many events in the fall and relatively few in spring is beyond me, but anyhow this year I finally managed to go to UNSEEN. This meant not going to the VTWonen beurs , Meet the Blogger and the Dutch Design Week (skipping those for a year). I am a new mother as you know and I still can’t be at several places at once although this would be most convenient. “Quality over quantity” I remind myself. Now and again I pick something (an event, fair or other invitation). Because I don’t have to go to another thing the next day it stays exciting. Moreover I can give it my undivided attention. So I can actually have a conversation with someone (hooray!) or, like last Friday, I can look at the photo’s at my own pace. Boy, this is such a luxury!

UNSEEN is an international photo fair aimed at the discovery of new talent and never before seen work of established names. At the fair you can find galeries, curators, collectors and photo enthusiasts from all over the globe. In the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam more than fifty galleries showcase their latest. There are lectures, award ceremonies, book presentations, debates and other activities. You can find a book market (hooray!) and a magazine on the latest developments in photography. The work of the young duo Christo & Andrew was chosen for the campaign imagery this year and if you were lucky you could see the two seeking inspiration in matching long camel coats on the grounds. You could also have your portrait taken by young photographing talents from Africa, since portrait photography apparently, as I’ve read in the booklet, has a long tradition in African photo history.

What struck me was the great number of photo’s where nature was the subject and in particular some sort of eery mysterieus form of nature. Images that conjure up a feeling more than delivering some sort of clear message. Decorative at first glance, but at the same time obviously unheimisch, many with dark backgrounds. It reminded me of the atmosphere Dorhout Mees created in her fashionfilm NUBIVAGANT. It’s a form of nature that sort of lost it’s natural essence, but where you can clearly see evidence of human interference. On the photo’s this is made very concrete because of how they manipulated the photo’s. It creates a eery, surreal effect. Like the fairytale can change into a Guillermo del Toro– like nightmare at any moment. You can also see this in NUBIVAGANT (according to Other Worldy the word means ‘moving through clouds’); is it the prelude of a sinister story or rather a phantasy in which we want to live? It’s this dubious double sidedness that make these photo’s and the movie interesting. Nature is a seemingly innocent counterpart to the other images on the fair which mostly centered around the concept of identity (but more on that in a later post). UNSEEN usually takes place at the end of September. If you like photography the fair and festival really is a must!